NBTC sets aside THB1.2 billion to cover internet bills for online classes
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) will provide 79 baht per month (excluding VAT) for two months to students who have to attend online classes due to the Covid-19 shutdown, NBTC acting secretary-general Trairat Wiriyasirikul on Tuesday.
“The commission has earmarked 1.2 billion baht for this campaign, which will run from August 15 to October 15, coinciding with the first semester of the 2021 academic year,” he said.
“NBTC will provide 79 baht for fixed broadband [home internet] for two months to students in kindergarten, elementary, secondary, high-school and vocational certificate levels, as well as those in non-formal educational institutes under the Education Ministry that are conducting online classes.
“Eligible students who have a smartphone will be given unlimited data when using the following programs to attend class, namely Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Zoom, Cisco Meeting, Webex and Line Chat. They will also get an additional 2GB data on top of their current package,” he added.
“We hope this measure will help alleviate parents’ and students’ financial burden while schools are closed and classes need to be conducted online,” Trairat said.
He added that apart from supporting online classes for students, NBTC is also making contributions to other agencies that need to rely on telecom services during the Covid-19 outbreak.
“Earlier this month, NBTC made all Covid-19 related hotlines toll-free, namely 1330, 1323, 1422, 1442, 1646, 1668, 1669 and 1506,” he said. “The commission has also donated Wi-Fi routers, computers, tablets and mobile telephones to Covid-19 community isolation centres to ensure public health staff can provide telemedicine services in case of emergency.”
